The Baltimore Ravens, undeniably, had phenomenally bad luck on the health front during the 2021 season. When you go into the year with all three of your top running backs on the Reserve/Injured List, I think that’s fair to say. But it didn’t even come close to stopping there, as you likely know.
They also lost, among others, the majority of their starting secondary over the course of the season, and that included All-Pro cornerback Marcus Peters, who actually tore his ACL just before the regular season even started, resulting in them playing the entire season without him.
The good news is that he and all of their other injured players seem to be trending in the right direction—even getting good news on the Ronnie Stanley front, who has missed most of the past two years. But getting Peters back would certainly be huge.
“I’m in the right place, going in the right direction with my leg”, Peters told Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic. The reporter also wrote that he is in good spirits after missing the entire year, the first extended time missed of his career. Prior to last season, he had never missed more than two games in any season.
The Ravens originally acquired the former first-round draft pick from the Los Angeles Rams during the 2019 season via trade, after having spent the first three years of his career with the Kansas City Chiefs. In the two years he has been on the field in Baltimore, he has recorded seven interceptions in 24 games, with two touchdowns and 19 passes defensed, along with four forced fumbles.
Also on his way back to health is Marlon Humphrey, their other All-Pro cornerback. Humphrey played the majority of the season, but suffered an injury in Week 13 that proved to be serious enough to keep him off the field for the rest of the year.
When they do return, they will be staring at a rather different safety tandem. They spent big money in free agency to sign Marcus Williams from the New Orleans Saints, and then when the opportunity came to them, they used the 14th pick in the 2022 NFL Draft to select safety Kyle Hamilton.
The Ravens have long been a team that has made a conscious effort of investing in their secondary, and this offseason has certainly proven to be no different with how they went about addressing the safety position.
Getting their All-Pro cornerback tandem back on the field with an upgrade of talent behind them will only create more problems for opponents—and give their underwhelming pass rush more time to get home.
